1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microcircuit card of the contact-free type used in conjunction with a receiver to carry out an electronic transaction.
2. Description of the Related Art
In this patent application the expression “electronic transaction” is to be understood in a broad sense, and may in particular refer to a commercial transaction such as obtaining cash from an automatic teller machine as well as diverse applications such as controlling access to a building and loyalty card operations.
Be this as it may, to carry out the transaction, this kind of contact-free microcircuit card cooperates with a unit referred to hereinafter as a “receiver”.
Compared to contact microcircuit cards, contact-free microcircuit cards have the advantage of not necessitating physical insertion of the card into the receiver, as a transaction can be carried out when the contact-free card is within a sufficiently small distance of the receiver.
Prior art contact-free microcircuit cards are conventionally used to carry out transactions that do not necessitate identification of the card user by intentionally entering a personal identification number (PIN). This is because this step is not generally necessary for the usual uses of contact-free cards, such as controlling access to a building, for example.
However, in the case of a multiple application card, it may be beneficial to secure certain applications by intentionally entering a personal identification number.
In the case of using a contact card in the manner known in the art, in particular for withdrawing cash, this intentional identification step is carried out by entering a personal identification number on a keypad incorporated in the receiver.
In the case of using a contact-free microcircuit card, the solution consisting in entering this information by means of a keypad incorporated into the receiver is not satisfactory, for a number of reasons.
First of all, this kind of use necessitates intervention of the user at the receiver, which may be a problem in certain applications.
Also, in the case of transactions necessitating a very high level of security, a user may hesitate to enter his personal identification number into a receiver because he is afraid of the number being pirated.